Ken Gray has a way of viewing obstacles as a challenge.
A big hurdle hit the Naperville competitive runner in 2015 when told his largest coronary artery had a 95% blockage.
Gray faced another stumbling block when, after stent surgery opened up that artery, his cardiologist warned him no one his age should be racing, with a second specialist ordering him to give up the sport he loved.
In October, the 60-year-old College of DuPage psychology professor faced yet another set of obstacles.
Forty to be exact – at the 2023 Obstacle Course Racing World Championship in Mammoth Lake, California.
The heart patient who was told to give up competitive running claimed first place in his age category in this grueling competition that not only included 10 miles of treacherous mountain-trail racing but a series of “major” obstacles that challenged strength, dexterity and agility as well as cardio endurance.
The victory at the Obstacle Course Racing World Championship was a remarkable comeback for the married father of three and longtime popular COD teacher who had been enjoying success as a competitive road racer since age 30 until a Naperville half-marathon in November of 2015.
A little over eight miles into that race, Gray found himself falling so far behind “I sat down on the curb, rested for a bit and walked to the finish line.”
Turns out Gray had been experiencing more fatigue than usual leading up to the event, which prompted a visit to the doctor and testing that revealed nothing abnormal.
A second cardiology visit after this failed race again showed no issues. But as Gray went into the new year, he began noticing some chest pain when exercising, as well as “a sense” that his maximum effort was now subpar.
More testing revealed the dangerous blockage, but successful surgery to put in a stent the following day left Gray feeling “perfect.”
That euphoria, however, quickly dissipated.
“It was one of the worst days of my life,” Gray recalls of the moment in that post-op visit when the cardiologist told him he had to give up the sport that defined so much of who he was.
“Racing was such an important part of my life,” he told me. “I not only love running but I love seeing what I can do to improve.”
And so, “after grieving for about a week,” Gray began looking into the topic of sports cardiology, a subject that’s gained more headlines over the past decade or so, including a year ago when Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin suffered sudden cardiac arrest in front of millions of TV viewers on a Cincinnati football field.
Gray’s research eventually led him to Dr. Kannan Mutharasan, medical director of Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute South Region at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, who assured him that exercise after heart surgery could involve more than walking on a treadmill.
“There will always be a spectrum of opinions” among physicians, Mutharasan admitted. “But as doctors we can fall into the trap that it’s my job to protect the organ and not the whole person.”
And because “the patient is the most important person on the care team,” he continued, “our job is to let him understand what is happening with his body” and help him make an informed decision.
“When it comes to exercise,” Mutharasan says, “the question becomes what can you do to mitigate the risk.”
It turns out quite a bit, especially as sports cardiology has grown from a small niche interest to a vital field that continues to gain awareness and practice.
With more people exercising and surviving cardiac events, notes Mutharasan, the field has developed into its own specialty “with the bedrock to help people understand risks and benefits.”
Mutharasan describes Gray as a “pretty rare case study” and the “most gifted athlete I’ve had the privilege of caring for.”
That being said, he also has “a lot of patients who after bypass or a stent who want to get back to vigorous running or biking.” And for most of them, he continued, the message is that any comeback must be “a marathon, not a sprint … that it be done gradually and respectfully.”
As the cardiologist points out, sports is not just about winning the next race or the next match but about coming out ahead in life.
Exercise is not only a way to increase strength, agility, flexibility and cardiac health, it improves longevity, insists Mutharasan, adding that it may have saved Gray’s life because problems tend to show up earlier when the heart is under exertion.
Determined to stay on course, Gray, who also had to come back from a lupus diagnosis at age 47, followed the doctor’s workout plan, which involved heart rate restrictions for a period of time. By the end of 2016, the patient was doing 5Ks, which included a confidence-building fourth-place finish in the Naperville Turkey Trot. And he continued to see Mutharasan twice a year, while gradually upping his training at the HartFit Hybrid and OcRx fitness center in Plainfield.
The COD professor, who was named Outstanding Faculty Member in 2013, has co-authored a psychology textbook and has been involved in dozens of educational committees and endeavors, does not like to tout his many accomplishments, noted the cardiologist, who told me he didn’t even know Gray was competing in the Obstacle Course Racing World Championship until after the fact.
Gray may be a “humble” and “reserved” kind of guy, as his doctor describes him to me, but there’s nothing timid about the competitive heart of this athlete, who already has his eyes set on the 2024 OCR World Championship and those 59-year-olds who will be coming after him.
“My ultimate goal is to stay on the podium at these championships for as many years as possible,” he insists. “I have plans for how I can get faster.”
It’s a statement that does not surprise his doctor who knows just how much hard work this 60-year-old athlete has put into his sport.
“Not all of us can be Ken,” says Mutharasan, “but we can strive to be more like him.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
